The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Chapter 173
Summary & Analysis

LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Growing Up

Trust

Truth, Love, and Safety

Logic vs. Emotion

Perspective and the Absurdity of the World

Summary

Analysis

From where he’s hiding, Christopher can see the constellation Orion. Supposedly Orion looks like a hunter with his weapons, but Christopher points out that the stars could be joined up to make any figure someone wanted. Constellations are completely subjective, based on people’s imaginations. The real truth is that Orion is just a bunch of stars, which are just nuclear explosions.

Christopher again exhibits his ability to think outside of conventional constructions. Constellations are stories that people imagine; when he strips them down to the scientific truth, they’re only chemical reactions. However, it’s impossible for him to strip his own life down to a scientific truth, even though he’d probably like to, because people are simply not logical.